National Music Editor

Exposure: Jessica Mauboy will become the first guest singer from a non-European Union country to perform at Eurovision. Photo: Supplied

SBS television wooed the European Broadcasting Union for a year to get an Australian on stage at next week's Eurovision Song Contest, and Jessica Mauboy was the only singer considered.

Mauboy hopes to make it overseas on the back of her exposure at the 59th Eurovision, to be held in Copenhagen: ''Hopefully this will open some doors, people over there will listen to more of my music and I will eventually go over for a few months.''

SBS director of television Tony Iffland said the station always had Mauboy in mind. ''Jessica is the face of modern Australia [and has] a brilliant voice,'' he said.

Mauboy becomes the first guest singer from a non-European Union country to perform at the event on Friday - although remarkably four Australians have competed before. Olivia Newton-John (1974, representing the United Kingdom), Gina G (1996, UK), Jane Comerford (2006, Germany) and Australian-born Johnny Logan (1980 and 1987, Ireland).

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More than 751,000 Australians watched last year's Eurovision final. SBS is also likely to get an early ratings boost on Friday morning when Mauboy's performance will be shown an hour after she is on stage. Iffland said no money had changed hands between SBS and the EBU or Sony, Mauboy's label. ''We didn't pay for Jess to be at Eurovision,'' he said.

He would not estimate the value of her performance but said it was worth ''a lot in audience acquisition and that audience is attractive to advertisers.''

Is Iffland nervous about Mauboy performing for a television audience of up to 30 million?